Bill 168

Workplace violence is on the rise in Canada.

In 2004, Statistics Canada found 17% of all of the nation’s physical assaults, sexual assaults, or robberies happened in the workplace. That’s 356,000 incidents of violence in the workplace across the 10 provinces. In 2008, a survey conducted amongst the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) revealed that an astounding 43% of employees had been victimized by workplace violence within the past year. A joint study by York University and Carlton University in 2008 estimated there were 15,000 violent incidents against Personal Support workers within a six-month period. In 2007, 69 homicides directly related to workplace violence were reported to the police.

As an employer, it is your obligation to protect your workers from violence, harassment and death, which is not an easy task. With the amendment of the Ontario Health and Safety Act to include Bill 168, employers have more responsibilities in protecting their workers, and more requirements to fulfill. The onus is on you, the employer, to make sure that your workers are not victims of workplace harassment and violence.

Employers must provide all of their workers with a method of summoning immediate aid – but how can a victim summon aid without further endangering themselves, or enraging the perpetrator? A cell phone seems the likeliest answer – yet an attempted phone call is far more likely to escalate the situation. How do you protect your worker when they are unable to reach for their cell phone because of the physical proximity of the assailant? How is the worker protected if they have been rendered unconscious by an assault? It is clear that a cell phone is more likely to escalate the risk for your worker’s safety, leaving the worker feeling exposed without recourse to call for help. A cell phone is not a reasonable precaution when it comes to preventing violence and harassment in the workplace.

Here at FrequencyWare we have solutions that will allow your workers to summon aid in a discreet and safe manner, never alerting the assailant that a call for assistance has been placed. Finally, a solution that truly fulfills your requirements, as an employer, under Bill 168.

Identicom looks like a name tag or badge, allowing it’s use to be completely undetected. The emergency button can be discretely and easily activated, which will immediately connect to our manned monitoring centre, where all the necessary details about the individual being protected are at hand. The live person at our monitoring centre quickly assesses the situation, and decides what response is needed, dispatching the appropriate emergency response teams immediately. This solution is designed to prevent false alarms, as an accidental triggering will not result in authorities being dispatched. The type of response that is needed for their safety will be sent, guaranteeing your workers, and yourself, peace of mind.

The various features of the Identicom make it the ideal solution to protect your workers from harassment and violence. Contact us to learn about the numerous benefits and features that have uniquely positioned this system as the ideal way to protect and assist your workers.

Provide the confidence in workplace safety that your workers deserve – let us focus on protecting their safety, let them focus on their work.

Click here for more information on the Identicom solution with man down functionality.